A Little Knowledge!

~ A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle. ~
Kahlil Gibran

In the lead up to the inauguration of Barack Obama and the sentiment of hope that follows him I decided to pull out the
"Yippie Manifesto" which summed up the radical feeling of the Youth International Party who were "a highly theatrical and anti-authoritarian political party established in the United States in 1967. An offshoot of the free speech and anti-war movements of the 1960s, the Yippies presented a more radically youth-oriented and countercultural alternative to those movements. They employed theatrical gestures — such as advancing a pig ("Pigasus the Immortal") as a candidate for President in 1968 — to mock the social status quo. They have been described as a highly theatrical youth movement of “symbolic politics.”
Since they were better known for street theatre and politically-themed pranks, many of the "old school" political left either ignored or denounced them. "The group was known for street theater pranks and was once referred to as the 'Groucho Marxists'." - Wikipedia
At the 1968 Democrat Party Convention, the "Yippies", lead by Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, protested and were jailed for inciting violence while promoting their ideas for an "alternative society". They also protested the inauguration of Richard Nixon in 1969. Is it possible that will be out again next week or has Obama got enough 'cred' for now.

The Yippies are still alive and well in the USA, protesting the current political climate, in a way that Gibran could possibly have been describing in the above quote. But has the age of mass community protest lost its sense of humour in the face of the current world climate and have activists adopted a more sedate and serious approach in seeking to change society now that 'a little knowledge' is now endless reams of information freely available to all but with how much time for discernment?


" Come into the streets on Nov. 5, election day, Vote with your feet. Rise up and
abandon the creeping meatball! Demand the bars be open. Make music and
dance at every red light. A festival of life in the streets and parks throughout
the world. The American election represents death, and we are alive.
Come all you rebels, youth spirits, rock minstrels, bomb throwers, bank
robbers, peacock freaks, toe worshippers, poets, street folk, liberated women,
professors and body snatchers: it is election day and we are everywhere.
Don't vote in a jackass‐elephant‐cracker circus. Let's vote for ourselves. Me for
President. We are the revolution. We will strike and boycott the election and
create our own reality.
Can you dig it: in every metropolis and hamlet of America boycotts, strikes, sitins,
pickets, lie‐ins, pray‐ins, feel‐ins, piss‐ins at the polling places.
Nobody goes to work. Nobody goes to school. Nobody votes. Everyone
becomes a life actor of the street doing his thing, making the revolution by
freeing himself and fucking up the system.
Ministers dragged away from polling places. Free chicken and ice cream in the
streets. Thousands of kazoos, drums, tambourines, triangles, pots and pans,
trumpets, street fairs, firecrackers–a symphony of life on a day of death. LSD in
the drinking water.
Let's parade in the thousands to the places where the votes are counted and let
murderous racists feel our power.
Force the National Guard to protect every polling place in the country. Brush
your teeth in the streets. Organize a sack race. Join the rifle club of your choice.
Freak out the pigs with exhibitions of snake dancing and karate at the nearest
pig pen.
Release a Black Panther in the Justice Department. Hold motorcycle races a
hundred yards from the polling places. Fly an American flag out of every house
so confused voters can't find the polling places. Wear costumes. Take a
burning draft card to Spiro Agnew.
Stall for hours in the polling places trying to decide between Nixon and
Humphrey and Wallace. Take your clothes off. Put wall posters up all over the
city. Hold block parties. Release hundreds of greased pigs in pig uniforms
downtown.
Check it out in Europe and throughout the world thousands of students will
march on the USA embassies demanding to vote in the election cause Uncle Pig
controls the world. No domination without representation.
Let's make 2‐300 Chicago's on election day.
(On election day let's pay tribute to rioters, anarchists, Commies, runaways,
draft dodgers, acid freaks, snipers, beatniks, deserters, Chinese spies. Let's
exorcise all politicians, generals, publishers, businessmen, Popes, American
Legion, AMA, FBI, narcos, informers.
And then on Inauguration Day Jan. 20 we will bring our revolutionary theater
to Washington to inaugurate Pigasus, our pig, the only honest candidate, and
turn the White House into a crash pad. They will have to put Nixon's hand on
the bible in a glass cage.
Begin now: resist oppression as you feel it. Organize and begin the word of
mouth communication that is the basis of all conspiracies ....
Every man a revolution! Every small group a revolutionary center! We will be
together on election day. Yippie!!! "

"Yippie Manifesto" - Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin (1968)